GROW Framework: DIY Exercise

Updated March 2023

Here's A DIY Tool to Help GROW Your Business

3-minute read; 1-hour DIY exercise.

As a small business leader, it often feels like we need more than 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week to have enough time and energy to grow our businesses. Oh, and we also need to practice self care.

Well, we can’t get an extra hour in the day, but we can empower ourselves to be more impactful in the 24 hours we do have.

One tool we like to use ourselves as WISe (and with our small business members) is the “GROW” framework. We’ve attempted to package it up in a DIY form for your use here—we hope it helps.

Let’s GROW together! 

Introducing the “GROW” framework

 A WISe community member first learned about the GROW framework while she was on an expat assignment in Geneva, Switzerland—and she has been passing the framework along to empower others since. (Quick shout out to said WISe community member Melissa Aceves. She just celebrated 11 years with P&G and, in addition to helping her at work as she coaches her team, she credits the concepts underlying the GROW framework for its part in her impressive personal transformation that you can check out on her Instagram @IGFitMel.)

At WISe, we’ve used the GROW framework with many of our small business members in working sessions to set a way forward and/or to recalibrate and reset. While it is usually a very fluid and dynamic exercise, we’ve attempted to distill it to a DIY solution here.

How to use the GROW framework

Top Tip: Specificity > Generality. Answer the prompts truthfully (don’t worry, only you will know your answers unless you decide to share) and with as much specificity as you can. For example, if you’re defining your Goal (the “G” in the “GROW” acronym) make certain it’s Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. “I want to make more money next year” is ok, but not clear enough to serve us well here. “I want to increase top line revenue by at least 10% versus this year while maintaining or improving margins and without increasing my time spent on the business” is a better goal for the exercise.  

The GROW Framework

1.     Goal. What is your Goal? Should be “SMART” (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).

2.     Reality. What is the current reality you live in? Specific metrics are great for this—should be the same metrics from your goal above, ideally.

3.     Options. What options do you have that you could execute to achieve your goal? Things you can start doing more of that move you forward? Things you can stop doing that keep you back?

4.     What’s Next. What are you doing next in pursuit of your Goal above? Choose one thing, preferably something small you can do in a matter of minutes and then at least 2-3 more things that you can do in the near- and mid-term. Again, Specificity>Generality.

Example GROW Exercise

1.      Goal. Increase my take home pay by 20% in 2023 versus 2022 without changing my current business offerings.

2.     Reality.

a.     I currently take home $100,000 per year

b.     I earn this from 17 different clients

c.     I work 40-50 hour weeks to serve all clients

d.     15 clients pay me $5,000 per year ($75,000)

e.     1 client pays me $15,000 per year

f.      1 client pays me $10,000 per year

g.     The clients paying $10k and $15k have been with me for 10+ years. I’ve honored the same price for these clients for 10 years.

h.     Clients paying $5k have been with me an average of 2 years

i.      $5k clients have a 100%+ renewal rate and have increased each year through word of mouth

3.     Options.

a.     Keep pricing and actively aim to close 4 more $5k clients

b.     Revisit pricing of my services and charge more per service to existing clients

c.     Bring on more clients, at new, higher pricing

d.     Close my first $20k client for the service I provide to my $15k client

e.     Create and market a self-serve offering that all 17 of my clients can add to their current services for $1,000 and that I can sell to others

4.     What’s Next.

a.     Loose projections of each of above options, likelihood, barriers, costs, and how I can test the most promising at a low cost

b.     Identify top 2 (max 3) winners

c.     Test and learn

We hope these tool help you GROW!

Questions or feedback? Reach out: hello@wisewellnessguild.com.